Teachers can get free school supplies at Teacher Supply Depot on Oct. 29

The Teacher Supply Depot will open from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday to give Knox County Schools’ teachers and teaching assistants the opportunity to shop for free classroom supplies.

The Depot, located at 709 N. Cedar Bluff Road, in the former Cedar Bluff Intermediate School, is a joint venture of Knox County Schools and the Teacher Supply Depot PTA.

The Teacher Supply Depot provides KCS teachers and others with new and used classroom materials for free.

In its 15 years of service, the Teacher Supply Depot has benefited more than 10,000 KCS professionals and provided more than $2.6 million in materials through the support of local businesses and community members.

The depot is driven solely by donations and is a unique way for local businesses and community members to partner with the school system to provide material support to teachers. All donated materials are used to enhance instruction and promote student achievement in classrooms across the district.

Although donations are accepted year-round, the Teacher Supply Depot is only open on certain dates throughout each academic year. Those planning to shop at the Teacher Supply Depot must bring a school ID or another form of identification to be admitted.

Two additional Teacher Supply Depot shopping days will be held this academic year on Jan. 21 and Apr. 1, 2017.

A look at KCS personnel dismissals

In June of 2015, parents and community members protested the dismissal of effective teachers in Knox County Schools who were dismissed by a practice called, “non-renew.”

After a months-long effort, a number of folks, including incoming school board member Jennifer Owen, have completed a review and analysis of the personnel files of 72 KCS employees who were dismissed in May and June 2015.

Only five of 41 non-renewed teachers had any indication of possible performance issues. Among the 41 were six teachers on whom the district spent over $40,000 on signing bonuses in 2014-15.

Only one of the six had performance issues.

May is the time of year when teachers and other staff are told they will be non-renewed.

You can find the 11-page report HERE.

A few notes from the report:

Personnel files of classified staff show inconsistencies throughout, though they were much more likely to contain information regarding reasons for dismissal. Some dismissals seemed warranted and others had no evidence of performance problems.

The “Termination” dismissal category is used inconsistently, as is the “Not Recommended for Continued Employment” category. The latter seems to be used in some cases where problems indicate prompt termination would be more appropriate. The use of “Administrative Leave” is another area of inconsistency, but is not addressed in Board policy.

The Board of Education is badly in need of a capacity for audit and review of personnel and other practices in the schools that is independent of the superintendent.

Again, check it out for yourself. It's certainly worth a look and I suspect the BOE will have a discussion about it. Maybe not now, but possibly when new members, including Owen, take office in early September.

McIntyre turns in self-evaluation

Knox County Schools Superintendent Jim McIntyre has turned in his performance self-evaluation, and it's quite glowing.

But, I mean, what do you expect? It's not like he's going to criticize himself.

Still, he just couldn't help taking a shot at "one or two" school board members. Heh.

We broke it down/summarized the self-evaluation RIGHT HERE, but you can read the entire 8-page memo RIGHT HERE.

On the surface, McIntyre has a lot to stand on.

The school system has earned a number of accolades during the past year and the graduation rate is up, albeit slightly.

(You might that McIntyre at one point uses numbers/increases from the the time he was hired in 2008 until now, but it's immaterial. The review is for 2014-15 - not 2008 through 2015 - but I digress.)


Anyhoo, the school board in the coming weeks or months or whenever will talk more about the evaluation and members will give their input.

It will certainly be interesting as McIntyre claims that "district leadership is carefully listening to and supporting our teachers and staff . . . ."

I'll leave it at that.

You can decide.

Knox County BOE remains in standoff over nontenured teacher policy

Photo: Knox County Schools

Proposed Knox County Schools’ policy that would let the Board of Education have input and review the dismissal of nontenured teachers continues to remain at an impasse.

The school board on Wednesday again couldn’t come to an agreement about what revisions – if any – it would like to put into the policy.

Members are expected to talk more about the matter in the coming months.

The board has spent months looking to resolve objections to the way KCS handles renewals of non-tenured teachers, going back and forth on the language and what they want in the policy and what they don’t want in it.

The discussions come as dozens of teachers voiced concerns about the non-renewal process on their contracts.

Currently, if a teacher is not tenured, the superintendent can choose to not renew a contract without reason.

Teachers are concerned the process on their contract is not clear, and some have called it unfair. They also have argued that termination of one job – without explanation – is often career-ending.
On Wednesday, the board shot down some proposed revisions in a 5-3 vote.

Board members Patti Bounds, Amber Rountree Karen Carson, Gloria Deathridge and Mike McMillan voted against the revised policy. Members Doug Harris, Lynne Fugate and Terry Hill voted for it. Tracie Sanger was absent.

“Some of the revisions were brought to us late in the day and they could possible create new problems and I don’t think they addressed the problems in the past,” said school board member Patti Bounds.

For example, she said, a key sticking point for a number of board members was that language – initially proposed – that would allow board members to affirm dismissals was removed.

Bounds said she wants the board to have the chance to review any nontenured teacher dismissals and to have a chance to either affirm or deny them. Also, if the board voted for no renewal, she wants teachers to have the option to appeal such a decision.

“I feel it’s another checks and balances that needs to be in place,” she said.

Board member Amber Rountree agreed.

"I didn't feel like the policy as presented didn’t really restore any decision-making powers to the board," she said.

Every year, according to district officials, between 30 and 50 – or about 1 percent – of all non-tenured teachers are non-renewed. This year, 45 teachers were non-renewed. Last year, that number was 55.

Carson said she’d rather officials look at procedure rather than policy.

“I think the board should tell the superintendent to go back and look at what we’ve done the past few years – it’s very easy to review,” she said. “Changing policy should never be a knee-jerk reaction. I think the bottom line is that what we want is to make sure the procedure is the best way to carry out that policy.”

She added: “I think it starts with the review of what are we doing now. Do we have a case where the procedure in place is good but three out of 90 administrators didn’t follow it? Or do we have a case where it’s not followed by half the people or do we have a case where it’s just a bad procedure?”

Law director memo: Knox County BOE could renew teacher non-renewals

During last week’s Knox County Board of Education meeting, school boarder Amber Rountree asked the law director:

“What power does the board have with regard to the non-renewal of teachers’ contract?”

Well, apparently, a whole heck of a lot, according to Knox County Law Director Richard “Bud” Armstrong.

In a memo dated July 2, Armstrong, citing state and case law, said:

“The Board has absolute authority, in its discretion, to review any non-renewal or any other personnel matter that is brought to the attention of the Board. The Board may implement any procedure and take such action as the Board deems proper.”

In non-lawyerly language: If a principal fires a teacher, the school board – a voting majority – can overrule the principal and put that teacher right back in the classroom.

You can read the memo RIGHT SMACK HERE.

Now, why is this important?

Parents, teachers and students are upset that Christina Graham, a now former Copper Ridge Elementary School kindergarten teacher, was let go this past May. They feel that officials retaliated against her because she spoke out against SAT-10 testing for kindergarteners. Apparently Graham scored well on her evaluations, so it more than likely wasn’t about that.

A lot of folks will now probably look to the school board to see what happens next, and the pressure is on.

Does the board address the non-renewals case-by-case, or do members let it go? Right or wrong, the board will come dangerously close to micromanagement if it starts overruling principals, no matter how well-intended the situation.

Graham’s case could be the first big test.

And if I recall correctly, Copper Ridge is in board member Patti Bound’s neck of the woods, and she doesn’t necessarily see eye-to-eye with the administration.

We’ll see.

More County teachers leaving in past three years than previous three

The latest numbers from Knox County Schools draw a more complete picture of exactly how many educators plan to leave the district this year.

In the 2013-2014 schools year, the relationship between teachers and school administrators was, at times, tense. Rumors circulated about of a mass exodus of teachers planning to leave the school system.

Here's a look at them below:

Here's what Knox County teacher Lauren Hopson had to say: "I definitely see an upward trend in the number of resignations. There are more resignations this year than there have been in recent history, and I think that's very telling about the climate in our school system."

Here's what Knox County Superintendent Jim McIntyre had to say: "It has been a very routine year for teacher retirements and resignations. In fact, the overall number of teachers leaving has actually decreased from last year. I have heard a lot of appreciation from our teachers for the actions we have taken to better support them, and a lot of enthusiasm and excitement about the upcoming school year."

Here's what the ol' Porch had to say: "Nice spin, folks! Look at the past three years and look at the three before that. All changes, disagreements, consternation, whatever started awhile back, but only became public last year.  There has been a major exodus."

Check out the full story RIGHT SMACK HERE.